‘Israel Got Hit Really Hard’: How Iran’s Ballistic Missile Arsenal Played a Central Role Deciding the Outcome of the War
Middle East , Missile and Space
In the aftermath of the ceasefire that suspended Iranian-Israeli hostilities, new details have emerged regarding the extent of the damage caused by sustained Iranian ballistic missile attacks against Israeli targets. Although the Israeli government imposed strict censorship on reporting or publishing footage of the missile attacks, a growing number of strongly corroborating sources have indicated that the fallout form the attacks has far exceeded prior Western and Israeli expectations. A list of some of the most high profile targets successfully hit by Iranian missiles have included Haifa Port, the Haifa Oil Refinery, Ben Gurion Airport, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Technology, Ben Gurion University, the headquarters of the defence firm Rafael, the Israel Nuclear Research Centre in Tel Aviv, and various strategic industrial targets in the city of Kiryat Gat. Significant military targets include Israel’s equivalent to the Pentagon, the Kariya, as well as key defence ministry buildings and the headquarters of the intelligence agency Mossad. Other targets include Ovda Airbase, Nevatim Airbase where all Israeli F-35s are based, and other facilities hosting fixed wing aircraft across the country. A number of mMissile strikes demonstrated the ability to destroy targets fortified underground, with civilians in bomb shelters, and at least one underground command centre, having been hit.
Missile strikes were launched in response to Israeli attacks on Iran on June 13, with the two countries subsequently launching escalating rounds of retaliation. As hostilities intensified, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was able to increase pressure on Israel’s defences by both sustaining the volume of strikes, and by utilising increasingly complex classes of missiles. This included launches of multi-warhead ballistic missiles, which posed significant new challenges and required several times as many interceptors to neutralise, as well as use of Fattah missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles which strike at speeds of over Mach 13, and are nearly impossible to intercept. The severity of the damage, and the fast diminishing ability of Israeli missile defences to blunt the attacks, was a primary factor leading Tel Aviv to accept a ceasefire on June 24. Commenting on the extent of the strikes at the subsequent NATO summit, President Donald Trump observed: “Especially those last couple of days, Israel was hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy they took out a lot of buildings.” This highlighted the central role which the arsenal played in deciding the outcome of the war. With Israeli sources widely reporting that the full extent of damage to military facilities in particular has not been made public, it remains highly uncertain how the country may seek to prepare for possible future rounds of hostilities, with a significant possibility remaining that further direct attacks on Iran will be ruled out entirely.
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